Chang Jae-hoon, vice chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, inspects a vehicle under repair at the Suwon High-Tech Center in Giheung-gu, Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on the 30th. Hyundai Motor
Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) has opened a high-tech service center capable of servicing everything from internal combustion engine vehicles to future mobility such as software-defined vehicles (SDVs). The company has deployed extensive automated equipment, including autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), to significantly improve work efficiency, cutting logistics travel time to about one-third. The move is seen as an effort to drive a second-half earnings rebound, leveraging after-sales service (AS) capabilities superior to those of imported car brands.
According to industry sources Monday, Hyundai Motor will officially begin operating the “Suwon Hi-Tech Center” in Giheung-gu, Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, from that day. The facility is an expanded reorganization of a service center previously located in Suwon, relocated to Yongin. With two basement floors and five above-ground floors, it has a total floor area of 51,497 square meters, larger than seven soccer fields.
Hyundai Motor said the Suwon Hi-Tech Center is equipped with the technology and facilities to service a wide range of vehicles, including future mobility. Specifically, through its remote diagnosis platform “RDSP,” it analyzes vehicle data in advance before intake and provides customized maintenance services. It has also established a “Data & Noise, Vibration, Harshness (NVH)” analysis room that comprehensively diagnoses noise, video, and controller communication to analyze defects that are difficult to identify at ordinary repair shops. A joint quality analysis room was also newly established, where vehicle analysis results can be shared in real time with the research institute to investigate the causes of defects.
The Suwon Hi-Tech Center is the first among Hyundai Motor’s service centers to deploy smart mobility, including AMRs. AMRs and autonomous case-handling robots (ACRs) transport various parts, and unmanned lifts move vehicles under repair. Hyundai Motor explained that this reduces the time needed to move parts from the warehouse to the work line by more than one-third compared to ordinary service centers.
The Suwon Hi-Tech Center has also introduced a “one-on-one dedicated engineer assignment system,” in which a single engineer handles the entire process from intake consultation through repair to delivery. Maintenance services are conducted by reservation only. Jang Jae-hoon, vice chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, emphasized full vehicle lifecycle management, saying, “We will expand our full-cycle management service that covers the entire process from new cars to certified used cars and second- and third-hand used cars, and from a customer’s first car to their sixth.” He added, “We will manage customer experience data in a different way from past customer relationship management (CRM).”
Hyundai Motor said it applied a building design differentiated from ordinary repair shops to grow the Suwon Hi-Tech Center beyond a service hub into a landmark of southern Gyeonggi Province. The building was designed in the form of a circular tower, and its exterior wall is wrapped with “louvers” (light shades) that regulate the inflow and reflection of light. The first-floor central plaza (atrium) features a circular structure that secures a space open in all directions from the center.
Starting with the Suwon Hi-Tech Center, Hyundai Motor plans to develop its 22 hi-tech centers nationwide into specialized hubs capable of precisely diagnosing future mobility such as SDVs. Jang said, “Good cars are made in factories, but great brands are completed at the service site,” emphasizing, “From architectural design to spatial design and the repair process, the Suwon Hi-Tech Center newly embodies Hyundai Motor’s service philosophy of speed, accuracy, and kindness, adapted to the era of future mobility.”
Behind Hyundai Motor’s special efforts on its service centers lies its lackluster sales performance this year. As growth in Korea’s domestic auto market has stalled and sales of U.S. and Chinese vehicles have risen, Hyundai Motor’s domestic sales fell 11.7% on a cumulative basis through May compared to the same period last year. In April, it even ceded its top domestic position to Kia, which can be considered the “younger sibling” company within Hyundai Motor Group. Jang said, “The area where Hyundai Motor can hold an advantage over imported cars is service,” adding, “There is a cycle in car sales, and this year we launched the Grandeur and the new Avante is also set to be released, so the cycle is favorable.”
